


Family Ties

by Pichitinha



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, It happens after she gets shot, It's mostly Barbara Centric, Romance, Wally appears and so does his wife even if unamed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-11 17:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4446077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pichitinha/pseuds/Pichitinha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barbara realizes she lost something and she can't help but miss them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Ties

**Author's Note:**

> “The sad thing is,” she said, “the moment you start missing someone, you know they’re already gone.” - Lang Leav.

Despite all the wrongs done  _to_  and  _for_  her, Barbara can’t really complain about her life. Throughout the years she’d had more obstacles to overcome than she’d thought was possible, but she did it.  
  
When she was shot and lost the movement of her legs… it  _did_  feel a little bit like dying. Being Batgirl was just as much of her personality as being simply Barbara Gordon was. Batgirl kicked bad guys and jumped rooftops and rode motorcycles. And Barbara Gordon trained Karate and was a gymnast and ran around organizing things. Using her legs was  _essential_  to her.  
  
But she learned and she lived through it and even though she misses being able to walk and run and other stuff – could she  _not_  miss it? – she is in a good place now. She learned that needing others sometimes for some things didn’t take away her independency, and that’s all she needed.  
  
So, after months of physical and psychological treatment, she’d learned to put that  _accident_  behind and focus on her future and what she  _could_  do. Like become the best hacker the world had ever seen. Like being the first hero in a wheelchair. Like owning herself in a fight  _despite_  her chair. Like learning that loving and being loved had nothing to do with being or not crippled.   
  
And maybe it’s her well resolved situation that makes the reaction so  _big_.  
  
She had never thought of that. She’d never dreamt of any of it before so it made sense she didn’t even think of it when she was shot.  
  
And now it’s staring her in the face like she’s on a spotlight and the air seems too thin to breathe. She can’t really focus on her thoughts because they’re racing too fast on her mind and they’re too many and  _too much_.  
  
She feels Dick turning over to her and she doesn’t need to be looking to know his face changed from the dopey smiley one into worried in a second. She feels it stabbing her that she’s gonna do this to him.   
  
“Babs?” He moves closer to her, away from the others, and murmurs so only she can hear it. “Barbara, talk to me.”  
  
She tries to, but her throat is choked up on the tears she refuses to let down.  
  
“We’ll be right back, guys.” He says to the couple behind him, but she pays them no attention.  
  
Dick is gonna be so disappointed. He’s gonna be sad and he’s gonna be angry and then he’s gonna feel guilt for feeling angry and she doesn’t know if she can take it. She doesn’t want that responsibility of crushing his dreams and expectations.  
  
He leads her chair even though she likes to do it herself because she shows no interest in doing so. He finds them a secluded corner close to what appears to be a broom closet and kneels in front of her chair.  
  
“Barbara, take a deep breath and try to calm down, I need you to focus and tell me what’s wrong.”  
  
And he’s so concerned over her well being that it just makes it  _worse_.  
  
She shakes her head and tries to swallow the lump on her throat. After a couple of minutes she manages to, even though her voice is hoarse as she speaks and one tear manages to make its way out of her left eye.  
  
“I… I can’t give you that, Dick.”  
  
He seems confused. “What?”  
  
She motions her head to the room they just left and his face changes.  
  
“Oh, Babs… I don’t… that’s not important.”  
  
“Don’t lie to me!” She says with a harsh look and he quiets down, even though his eyebrows are still raised in worry. “You want that, you want kids. You probably want a little black haired boy that will learn acrobatics or maybe a red haired girl with blue eyes that-“  
  
“Barbara.” He interrupts her and gives her a look that makes her stop. He takes both of her hands in his and locks their gazes. “I  _do_  want kids, that’s not what I’m saying. But I don’t need them to look like us. I just want kids, I just them to be _ours_. And you more than anyone know how much I believe that family doesn’t mean blood.”  
  
She shakes her head a little, still desolated. “They would be so amazing if we could, Dick.” And she almost lets another tear slip, but she stops it by closing her eyes tightly and biting her lip.  
  
And it’s when Dick hugs her and tells her that it’s gonna be okay and that it really makes no difference to him that it hits her.  
  
Dick was just a façade for how she felt. Deep down she knew it wouldn’t make a difference to him.  
  
But it does to her. Because she and Dick had a really rough path until they finally got together and even though she never explicitly thought of it, she’d always figured one day they’d get together and settle down and have kids together. Kids that had his hair and her eyes and his nose and her ears. Kids that were  _theirs_ , entirely.  
  
And she clutches into his embrace, finally letting her crying go free, because she  _misses_  them. The babies that she’ll never have. The babies that had always been there in her subconscious and now are gone.  
  
They stay there for several minutes until she finds herself calming down. He breaks their hug and holds her face with both his hands.  
  
“We’ll talk better when we get home, okay?” She nods slightly. “And if we decide we want to do this now, we can look for options tomorrow.”  
  
He kisses her then, calmly, and when they break apart she takes a deep breath and feels her heart is finally beating on a normal rate.  
  
“Do you want to go home?” He gets up and asks.  
  
“No.” She cleans her face of the few tears one more time and starts rolling her chair. “I didn’t even see her before we left. What did they call her again?”  
  
Dick smiles besides her. “Iris.”  
  
They enter once again the room where the newest parents are still holding the baby and with one glance they know that they shouldn’t ask what happened.  
  
“Here, Irey, meet Aunt Barb.” Wally coos at the little bundle in his arms as he passes her to Barbara.  
  
She looks down at the newborn girl, her face still wrinkled and reddish, and gives a light kiss on her forehead, her red lipstick leaving a little mark. It’s with that that Iris opens her eyes, just for a second, but enough for Barbara to see it. And when she feels her heart warming to that sight she knows that Dick is right, the child doesn’t have to be blood to be theirs, because she loves this little pink thing already and she’s gonna call her Auntie when she grows up and there’s no blood connecting them.  
  
She looks up at the beaming parents and at Dick who has a big smile, and she finds it in herself to smile back, happily.  
  
She lets herself think of the impossible blood kids they could have had, once upon a time. But just like the use of her legs, she realizes she has to move on. She can’t miss it anymore, she can’t crave it.  
  
So she takes another look at the baby – at her  _niece_  – and she lets them go.  
  
They’re gonna have a family someday, whether it’s in a year or ten. And no matter what happens, it’s gonna be  _theirs_.  
  
Barbara can’t really complain about her life. It’s good. 


End file.
